Guilty plea expected in 2011 Stroudsburg stabbing death

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By ANDREW SCOTT

poconorecord.com

By ANDREW SCOTT

Posted Feb. 27, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By ANDREW SCOTT
Posted Feb. 27, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

Scheduled for trial next week for fatally stabbing an eight-months pregnant woman in his Stroudsburg apartment in February 2011, a man plans to plead guilty to an amended offense less severe than the first-degree murder charges he faces.

However, defense attorney T. Axel Jones has declined to identify the amended offense to which Ruben Velazquez Jr., 42, plans to plead guilty.

Velazquez, whom Jones said has mental issues, stabbed Krystle Vasquez, 24, causing the deaths of her and her unborn child, Yesenia, in his Broad Street apartment in Stroudsburg.

Monroe County President Judge Margherita Patti Worthington on Tuesday granted a defense motion to continue Velazquez's trial, which District Attorney David Christine said had been scheduled for next week, since "it looks like we're close to a plea agreement," according to Jones.

Velazquez is charged with first-degree criminal homicide and first-degree criminal homicide of an unborn child, both punishable by life in prison without parole since the prosecution is not seeking the death penalty in this case.

"I'll sit down with (Velazquez) and his mother this afternoon to make sure everyone is on the same page with the plea agreement," Jones said Tuesday.

"If we're all on the same page, Judge (Art) Zulick will then schedule a date on which to enter the guilty plea," he said. "That might be during the second week of March, but it's up to the judge. We'll seek to have the charges amended to reflect the lesser offense to which (Velazquez) plans to plead guilty. He'll then be sentenced within 90 days of the date he enters that plea."

Worthington also granted the defense's motion to withdraw its petition for county funds for an independent crime scene reconstruction.

Velazquez called 911 after the stabbing and told dispatchers he had stabbed Vasquez after arguing with her, according to June 2011 preliminary hearing testimony.